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Clicker questions

I recently watched a video of Eric Mazur in action demonstrating a “Think-Pair-Share” technique. This technique works by a lecturer posting a question to the students (think). Students then pair up and try to convince the other student of their answer (share) with the aim that students learning from each other and not necessarily from the lecturer. In the video a few students were interviewed after the class and one student spoke about how he felt that he learned more quickly from his fellow students than the lecturer because the students were able to explain the concept that they themselves had just learned.

I had recently been covering a section of work on various labour relations acts and at the end of the session presented the students with 10 clicker questions to recap and test what they had learnt. (Formative assessment provides opportunities for students to measure their understanding during the course.) I presented the clicker questions in an Eric Mazur Think-Pair-Share method: the question was shown and polled, and instead of giving the correct answer straightaway, students were encouraged to convince the person next to them of their answer, and then the question was re-polled.